Features

Chien-Shiung Wu was born in Eastern China in 1912, at a time when girls were not expected to attend school. But Wu’s parents firmly believed in rights for women, and so they started their own girls’ school with their daughter as a pupil.

Hedy Lamarr led an extraordinary life. Born Hedwig Kiesler, Lamarr grew up in Austria in the depths of World War 1. After a brief stint as a German film star, she married an Austrian arms manufacturer and dealer: one of the country’s richest men.

Daughter to the poet, Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was born into aristocracy. Her mother feared Ada might become like her tempestuous and volatile father. And so she provided the child with a comprehensive science education in a bid to foster her sense of logic and reason.

From ground-based detectors like LIGO and GEO600, scientists and engineers are planning to expand the field of gravitational wave detection with space-based observatories like LISA. UK scientists and engineers are making key contributions to make these missions happen.

There are number of ground-based gravitational-wave observatories around the world, from the US to Germany and Japan. Explore where they are, and the roles that UK scientists and engineers have had in their development.

Scientists from all around the world were needed for the detection of gravitational waves to happen – find out how the UK contributed to this historic achievement, and why international collaboration in this field continues to be so important.

A year ago, the world shared in discovery of gravitational waves, thanks to collaborators around the world and in the UK. We explain exactly what gravitational waves are, where they come from and why they are still being hailed as the discovery of the century.